There has been substantial growth in the use of set-top boxes (STBs) equipped with digital video recording capabilities. Users often record content, such as, television programs, onto the digital video recorder (DVR). The users are then able to view the recorded content at a later time on a television to which the DVR is connected. Oftentimes, however, users would like to copy the recorded content onto a portable multimedia device (PMD) or a portable media player (PMP), such as, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a cellular telephone.
Directly copying of the content recorded on the DVR onto the PMDs is often limited by a number of factors. One of these factors is that the format in which the content is recorded onto the DVR is typically incompatible with the playback formats of the PMD and thus, even if the PMD is able to store the content recorded on the DVR, the PMD is typically incapable of playing the content. Another factor is that the PMDs are often equipped with a different digital rights management (DRM) system than the DRM system that manages digital rights of media content stored and played on the DVR. The DRM systems typically prevent unauthorized copying of content onto and playback of the content on the PMDs. Due to the different DRM system on the PMD, even if the content were copied to the PMD in a format compatible with the PMD, the content would still not be playable because the DRM system of the PMD would not be able to determine whether the PMD has rights to play the content.